Become a member at Handyman Edge and get content not found anywhere else as well as access to the private forum to discuss handyman business topics and get your questions answered. If you run a handyman business, you’ve got to be a member at Handyman Edge!

Gain an advantage over your competitors

When you’re serious about running a successful handyman business you want every advantage you can get over your competitors. You want first hand knowledge from others in the business that have already gone though the things you’ve yet to go through. That’s what being a member at Handyman Edge is all about. I’ll provide you with the tools and knowledge to grow your handyman business into one that can provide you and your family with the lifestyle you want.

It’s free!

Did I mention it’s free? Yes, becoming a member at Handyman Edge is free. You’ll get access to free content as well as the private forum. You’ll also have the opportunity to purchase additional products that will help you grow your handyman business. It all starts in the members area. I hope to see you inside!

Sign up here!

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Allow me to introduce you to Pro Handyman Websites

http://prohandymanwebsites.com

I’ve spent years perfecting my website for my own handyman business and I knew many other handymen could benefit from using my same system. That’s what I developed Pro Handyman Websites. This is not a handyman website template that you download. Let me make that very clear right from the beginning. This is a built for you system with content and everything you need to show up in Google and get more customers in your area. The minimum you need to do is fill in some information about your business.

Professional design

Every Pro Handyman Website has a very professional design that your clients can appreciate. It’s designed to make your business look professional and gain trust with homeowners in your area. One of the biggest problems I’ve seen with other handyman websites is that they just aren’t built professionally. They don’t have that polished look that builds credibility for your business. A Pro Handyman Website does.

Easily customizable

I created Pro Handyman Websites with other handyman in mind. Let’s face it, you’re not a web developer and neither should you try to be. I’ve built websites for years so I already had that knowledge to use for my own. I’ve made Pro Handyman Websites as easy to customize as possible. It’s got everything you need from basic customizations like changing the colors to suit your business to more advanced customizations if you’re comfortable in that area.

SEO built right in

Every Pro Handyman Website is designed with search engine optimization built in. They are designed to show up in the search engines when someone is looking for a handyman in your area. No matter how good your website looks, if no one can find it, it’s basically worthless.

Mobile site included

Yes, you’ll have a mobile version of your site that targets visitors on their cell phones and mobile devices. The mobile site gets straight to the point and helps your potential customers either call you or submit a quote request. Oh yes, did I mention your website can receive quote request also?

Content already written

One of the advantages of having a Pro Handyman Website is that the content is already written for you. We’ve done this in a very clever way so your business name shows up within that content as well as the cities that you service and the services you offer. This allows the website content to be tailor-made to your business and of course you can edit it anytime you like.

A done for you handyman website system

Pro Handyman Websites is the absolute easiest way for you to get an effective website for your handyman business that actually works. You can literally have your website up and running within minutes. There’s just too many features to list here. Go check out the demo for yourself right now.

Get a free trial today at http://prohandymanwebsites.com

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Customer reviews are golden

There’s a reason Amazon.com uses reviews so religiously on their website. It’s because they work! Reviews are so important when someone is making a purchasing decision and that includes when they’re hiring a handyman. I’ve bought a lot of stuff on Amazon.com over the years and I can tell you that when I’m looking at a product before I even read the description of the product I go straight for the reviews.

Customer reviews are the next best thing to a personal recommendation from a friend. We all know how powerful word of mouth can be but do you even realize that customer reviews are the next best thing?

You need customer reviews on your website

Getting genuine reviews from all of your happy clients should be a huge part of your online presence. Without them, your potential customers have no idea what kind of handy man you are. With reviews, they can trust what other people in your area are saying about your business and are much more likely to use you and not your competition.

I’ve understood the power of reviews for quite some time now. I started collecting reviews from my customers a couple years ago and quickly noticed how important they actually were. Many of my new customers said they chose my business because of all the great reviews I had on my website and they continued to tell me this to this day.

Reviews are easy with a Pro Handyman Website

When I first created Pro Handyman Websites, I knew I needed to make reviews as easy as possible not only for customers but also for the handyman who have the website. That’s exactly what I did. Your customers can simply add their raving review of your business to your website in less than a minute. After adding their review, you’ll get a notification by email letting you know there’s a new review to be approved. Once approved by you, the review will be live invisible on your site.

This really makes it extremely easy to build genuine reviews on your website. It’s tough to get every customer to submit a review on your website but you’ll know right away when someone will be willing to do it. It’s usually someone that has been amazed with the quality of service you’ve just given them. Hopefully that’s everyone .

Start now and never stop

If you haven’t started getting reviews of your customers, now is the time to start. If you already have a Pro Handyman Website, you are ready to get reviews right away. Simply ask your customers to leave you a review if they were happy with your service. Usually they’ll be happy to.

Either way, you really should start getting reviews right now and never stop. You can ask your customers to review you on your website, Google places, Yelp, and any other sites that have reviews of businesses. Generally, you’ll get less reviews on other sites since an account is required to place a review. The easier it is for your customers, the more reviews you’ll get. You can make it easy on them and yourself by having a Pro Handyman Website.

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Don’t be afraid to hire people to do the things you’re not good

Let’s face it, you’re not a graphic designer. There’s no reason you should be trying to create your own logo when you can leave it up to professionals and I’ll show you how to get it dirt cheap. When I started my handyman business back in 2004, I paid somebody about $150 to design my logo for my business. I’m happy with the way it came out but now you can get it done even cheaper thanks to a website called fiverr.com.

Handyman logos for $5

If you’re on a budget, one of the best ways you can get a logo for your handyman business is to go find somebody to do it on fiverr.com. Fiverr is a website where people post what they’ll do for $5. You can find people to do all sorts of different things for five dollars one of them being creating a logo for your business.

Here’s a link:

http://fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design/creative-logo-design?order=rating

It sounds crazy, but for five dollars you can actually get a pretty nice looking logo created for your handyman business. I guarantee it’s much better than what you would create on your own. Check out the link above and don’t be afraid to try out a few people. At just five dollars you could try five different people and still get a great bargain on a handyman logo. There’s really no better way to get a logo at such a low cost.

The post Handyman Logos at just $5? That’s right appeared first on Handyman Edge.

There are a lot of local business directories out there and it helps to be in as many as possible. It certainly can’t hurt you to give your handyman business more exposure on the internet can it? By adding your business to these directories you can increase the chances of someone finding you when they need a handyman.

Below is a list of many local business directories that you can set up listings for your business. Be sure to include all the information about your business as well as a link to your website. Remember, the main idea with any online marketing is not only to get them to call you but to also get them to your website so they can learn more about your business, read reviews, and essentially be pre sold on your services before they call.

Here is a list of directories to create your business listings on:

Keep in mind that most of these will be free and some will also offer paid services. I wouldn’t bother with their paid services. Just get your handyman business listed with them. They may attempt to contact you to try to sell you on the some of their paid services. I suppose you can’t blame them though since they are trying to run a business. Simply tell them that you are not interested if they do.

The post Show up higher in Google with local business directory listings appeared first on Handyman Edge.

Let’s suppose you run a handyman business in Corona, CA like I do. Your goal then is to get homeowners that are looking for home repair and improvement services to find your website and hire you. In order to do this you need to know what they are looking for in the first place though.

What are people searching for?

If you have Google Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics connected to your site you have the information available to see how people are currently finding your site. I have had this information available on my site for years so it’s given me a very good look into what people are searching for when they are looking for a handyman.

I’ve noticed over the years that when people are looking for a handyman they generally search for 2 different things. They either search for “Handyman in Corona” or a variation of that phrase or they search for the specific service that they want done like “ceiling fan installation in Corona”.

How do you show up?

Now that you know what they are generally searching for you need to know what it takes to show up. There are a number of factors that determine your rank in the search engines for different keyword phrases and that would be a post in and of itself but at the very core it’s content.

Read the next sentence carefully. You must create pages targeted to the specific things people are searching for. If you want to show up when someone is searching for ceiling fan installation in Corona you need a page about ceiling fan installation in Corona and the title of that page needs to also be “Ceiling fan installation in Corona, CA.”

If you already have a Pro Handyman Website then you don’t need to worry about this at all because we have already integrated this into every site. All you have to do is select the services you offer and we automatically create a page targeted to show up when someone is searching for that service in your city. The page includes the keyword phrase in the title which is very important and also in the body of the page text.

This is the most important factor when you want to show up for certain keyword phrases in the city you do business in.

Summary

• Create a page targeted to the service that you want people to find you for.
• Include the name of that service as well as the city in the title of the page.
• Be sure to include the service and the city in the body text of the page also.

Remember, if you have a Pro Handyman Website you don’t need to worry about this. We do it all for you. Just choose the services you offer and we create the pages around those services. Also, there are other factors that help you rank these pages in the search engines so people find them but that is a topic for an entirely different post.

Also, keep in mind, if your site is not properly built in the first place you will probably have a hard time getting these pages to rank. It’s important to have a website that is properly built before creating these pages so you’ll have the best chance at showing up when people are looking for your services. If you need help or have any question feel free to contact me. I’d be happy to guide you in the right direction.

The post How to get more people to find your website appeared first on Handyman Edge.

Take advantage of the free resources

I love using the internet to get customers for my handyman business. There are many free resources out there on the internet that you can use to start getting some business to bring in money. Take advantage of these because they’ll allow you to start your business with little or no money, just some time. The list below shows some of the best free resources out there that can get you some business very fast.

• Craigslist
• Google Places (Google + Local)
• Word of mouth

There are others but these are the top three that I have found to be the most effective.

Craigslist for handyman leads

Posting ads on Craigslist is not fun. It’s time consuming and can be a pain to get in there everyday and post. However, if you’re struggling to get business and you’ve got bills to pay (don’t we all), then you absolutely should get in there and start posting. I’ve already written a post on Craigslist that you can read here. I haven’t posted ads on Craigslist for my own business in years because I just don’t need it anymore. I get almost all of my business from my website now but that takes time to get up and running and ranking high. If I had to start from scratch with little or no money I would definitely be on Craigslist posting ads every day.

Google Places

Google Places is great because it’s free to setup and it’ll give you some internet presence without even having a website yet. It does take a little time to get approved (about 2 weeks) but once you are, your listing will be live and you can start getting business from it. If your competition is low in your area you have a very good chance at showing up high in the results right away. If you’ve got more competition, you may not get to the top until you start getting reviews, have a connected website, and make sure your listing is optimized. You can see my post about Google Places here.

Keep in mind. Google Places (Google + Local) is not going to get you those instant calls like Craigslist will but it’s very effective and important to have and you might as well get it set up early in your business.

Word of mouth

Let’s face it, there’s a reason everybody says word of mouth is the best form of marketing. First of all, it’s free and it can very effective. Having someone recommend you to one of their friends is a very powerful thing and basically means you’re almost guaranteed to get that job.

There’s a few things you need to do to get word of mouth working correctly though. First, you need to actually talk about your business and tell people that you are a handyman and you can solve their home problems. Second, you need to ask people to refer you to their friends and family. If they have been happy with the work you’ve done, chances are they will refer you anyway but it always helps to help encourage them a little.

Summary

If you have little financial means to get your handyman business up and running these three free marketing methods will get you customers so you can start bringing in income from handyman jobs. I know this for a fact because I did it when I was starting out and I’ve coached new handymen just like you to do it when they were starting out.

It’s totally possible to start your handyman business on a shoestring budget. After you start getting some income coming in you absolutely need to make sure you set aside enough to start doing some proper marketing though. You’ll need a website to bring in leads and you’ll also be able to take advantage of other marketing methods.

The three methods I outlined above will get you started but they will not provide you with the income you’ll need to really grow your business. If you set aside some of that money for higher level marketing, that’s when you’ll be able to grow your business and start making some real money. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and I really hope it helps you if you are just starting out. You need to take action in order for this stuff to work.

The post How To Start a Handyman Business on a Shoestring Budget appeared first on Handyman Edge.

Well, I’ve always tried to find the least expensive ways to bring in the most business. One of them which you might already know is Google Places. If you can show up in the top 3 spots for your area your Places listing can bring in a decent amount of business. It’s also free.

It’s always nice to be able to get business free or at least very cheap. I’ve tried many marketing methods, though most have not proven very profitable, one stands out among them that has blown away every single other. It’s a website. My website costs very little to run and maintain and it’s responsible for bringing in the vast majority of my business; much more than any other marketing method I use.

The importance of a website

Most handymen don’t understand the importance of a website. I know this because I talk to a lot of them all the time. You might also be one of them. I suppose you can’t really understand the importance until you actually see the results that it can produce. Once I saw that my website was bringing in practically all of my business I stopped chasing after all these other marketing and advertising opportunities out there. I started to make my website even better so it could be even more effective. I added reviews and a quote request form. I tried out different things to increase the leads I was getting.

A website is so valuable to your handyman business because you control everything about it. You control the content, the reviews that are posted, everything. This is really the only marketing and advertising method that you can control every aspect of.

It’s not magic. There are certain things that make it work

You cannot expect to throw up any website on the internet and think that it will automatically start bringing in customers. This is something that I see all the time. I’ll get emails from handymen just like you that tell me they are struggling to get business. They tell me they have tried many different things and nothings working. They even tell me that they have a website but aren’t getting any business from it.

I kindly ask for a link to the website and right away I can see why they aren’t getting any business from it. This stuff isn’t magic. You can’t throw just any old website up and expect it to magically start bringing in customers. It doesn’t work like that. If it did, everyone would be rich. If you are creating a website from scratch, it takes work. It’s taken me years of trial and error to get it right. My website didn’t even start bringing a significant amount of business for a couple years after creating it.

I did, however, put in the time to learn what works. I’ve created an entire website just for handyman internet marketing showing you what it takes to get an effective website. Even after showing you I still get emails asking questions that I specifically address in many posts on that site. So, as you can see, even when I lay everything out it’s still not easy to get an effective website for your handyman business that actually brings in customers. It takes work, there’s no doubt about it.

When I see a problem I help you solve it

I’m sure you know by now that I spend quite a bit of time trying to solve problems for handyman businesses. That’s why I’ve created this site as well as others and products specifically for handymen. My goal since starting this site has always been to help handymen make more money and make running their business easier.

I always strive to give you all the information you need to get ahead and learn from the mistakes I’ve made over the years. When I see a problem that not only I’ve faced in the past but one that many handymen are facing even now, I help you solve it using a combination of articles and posts on my websites and also with products that I create to solve that particular problem. That’s how the Handyman Price List was born.

The biggest problem I’m seeing now is handyman websites. You must have an effective website if you want to succeed is today’s competitive landscape. The fact is that people are looking for your services online everyday. If your not showing up someone else is. It’s either the other handymen in your area or websites like Home Advisor (Service Magic) that are selling you leads because they know how to make a website that can bring in leads. Do you realize that when you pay for leads from Home Advisor, you’re actually paying for leads that you could have got yourself from your own website if you had a good one? You don’t need to pay for leads when you have a website that works.

The easiest way to get a website for your handyman business

Most handymen aren’t going to put in the time it takes to figure out how to create a website that actually works. I did but it took me years of trial and error to get it right. So, like I’ve done before with the handyman price list and other products. I’ve created a product that does it for you. I’m very excited about this because it’s by far the best product I’ve ever created.

It’s called Pro Handyman Websites.

I strongly believe this is the very best way for a handyman to get a website that actually works. One that brings you business all year long and showcases your handyman business on the internet like it’s supposed to be done; making you look very professional too. Your website should show up when someone is looking for your services and that’s exactly what I’ve created a Pro Handyman Website to do. In fact, my website, TCF Home Solutions is a Pro Handyman Website. It’s the exact website that you can get too.

I hope you are ready to finally get serious about your handyman website. If you are, don’t hesitate to start your free trial of a Pro Handyman Website right now. Click here to start your free trial.

The post A Handyman Website is The Best Way to Get More Customers appeared first on Handyman Edge.

Don’t fall for this trick

Don’t let customers do this to you. I don’t and 9 times out of 10 they end up going with me anyway. You can bet that if they are asking you if you’d do it for a lower price their just fishing and hoping they’ll get a bite. Don’t fall for this trick.

Every time you quote a job give them the price you’d do it for and leave no room for negotiations. It definitely helps if you are a busy handyman though because you have to have the attitude that you’ll do the work for this price and no less. I go into every job this way and I stay perfectly busy. In fact, I usually have too much work.

Do it once and they’ll do it to you every time

The problem with letting them talk you down is that they’ll know they can do it to you every time you do work for them. This isn’t a good thing for your business. You are in business to make money; hopefully a lot of money if you can. Don’t let your customers think that your prices are negotiable. They may have gotten away with this with the last handyman they used but you’re not going to let it happen to you, I hope.

What to do if they try to negotiate

If you have given them a quote and they ask if you’ll do it for less here’s what you should say. It’s what I say every time and so far it has worked out great. The trick is to be nice yet firm when you say it.

Here’s an example of what you can say (tweak to your liking):

“John, I’d love to be able to do the job for that price but unfortunately I just don’t leave room in my estimates for negotiation. Every price I’ll ever give you is going to be my best price, I can guarantee you that.”

This is great because it lets them know that you can’t go lower on your price and it also sets it up so they never ask you to do any job for less again. You can change the wording around however you’d like but be sure to convey the same message.

Be sure to be firm in your tone of voice and don’t get nervous when saying it. It helps when you say it with confidence and assures them that the price you have given them is in fact your best price.

Chances are they’ll use you anyway and they’ll never bother asking you if you can do any job for a lower price than you bid. They’ll probably even respect you more as a businessman too!

The post Are Your Customers Talking You Down on Your Prices? appeared first on Handyman Edge.

Myth: It takes money to make money

This is absolutely a myth; not true at all. With a little creativity and a lot of ambition, you can make money from nothing at all and that applies to many businesses as well as a handyman business. I know for a fact because I did it myself. I will outline a simple plan below how to start a handyman business with no money at all.

#1 Take advantage of free resources

There are so many free resources available today that can help you start a handyman business without any money at all. You absolutely need to take advantage of them.

Google Places

If you are ready to start a handyman business and want to get customers now you need to head on over to Google Places (http://www.google.com/places/). I have written a post about how to set up a Google Places listing here. It will take a week or two to get your places listing all set up since they need to verify your address but start now and you’ll be able to start getting customers soon.

Craigslist

Listen, I personally don’t advertise on Craigslist anymore. I haven’t done so in many years but I still recommend it to new handymen because it is completely free and it actually does work. You can literally post an ad in the morning and have a job lined up by the afternoon of that day. I don’t need to use Craigslist anymore for my business because I stay plenty busy without it now but if I was starting over from nothing, you better believe I’d be on there every day posting ads.

Let me reiterate something. If you want to start making money as a handyman right away, get on Craigslist immediately. I’ll get emails every so often from struggling handymen who tell me they are having a hard time getting business. That really should not happen if you are posting and ad on Craigslist at least once a day.

I’ll be honest. Posting on Craigslist is a pain. That’s why I stopped doing it a long time ago. There may be a lot of competition in your area so your ads get pushed down quickly, your ads may get flagged, there are things that work against you. But that doesn’t mean you give up. If you are struggling to get more business, you better be on Craigslist everyday.

Google Places and Craigslist are two valuable FREE resources that you cannot overlook.

Use some of that earned money for more marketing

So, if you have created a Google Places listing and have been posting ads on Craigslist, you should have money coming in from jobs. You need to allocate some of that money for more marketing right from the beginning. I talk to too many handymen that don’t have any type of marketing budget and that is a mistake. Believe me, I don’t like to spend money where I don’t have to so I don’t. I only spend money and time on the things that I’ve seen produce great results.

I love marketing my handyman business online. I get most of my business from my website so that is naturally where I’m going to suggest you spend some time and money. It’s a very low cost marketing method that can produce excellent results, if you do it right. If you have a little time (which we know you do) and a little know-how, you can actually create yourself a decent website. I’ve written a lot of information on what makes an effective handyman website here. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay someone to either create you a professional looking website or subscribe to a service that takes care of it for you.

If you already have money coming in from jobs you got from the free resources above (which you should) and you should also start feeling the effects of word of mouth (if you are doing good work) then you need to be allocating some of that money to other effective marketing methods like your website that I described above.

If you do this, it will ensure that you always have new business coming in and it will be easily paid for. And guess what? It didn’t cost you a dine to start getting this business. You effectively started a handyman business from absolutely nothing. The plan I laid out above is the exact plan that I used to start my handyman business. I got my first very critical customers from Craigslist and everything grew from there. You can do this too. It takes work but if this is what you want, it’s so worth it!

You really can start a handyman business from nothing!

The post Is It Possible To Start A Handyman Business From Nothing? appeared first on Handyman Edge.